Dozens of UT-Austin professors sign anti-gun pledge

Updated 12:39 pm, Thursday, October 1, 2015

Professor Ann Cvetkovich waits to speak Wednesday during a forum at the University of Texas as a committee studies how to implement a new gun law.﻿

Professor Ann Cvetkovich waits to speak Wednesday during a forum at the University of Texas as a committee studies how to implement a new gun law.﻿

Photo: Eric Gay, STF

Dozens of UT-Austin professors sign anti-gun pledge

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AUSTIN - Nearly 170 faculty members at the University of Texas at Austin have signed a petition against a recently-passed law that will allow some to tote concealed handguns into school buildings as soon as next fall.

The list, which currently includes 168 names from 30 departments and programs, was released the same day that dozens are expected to rally at the system flagship against the new law. UT-Austin's total teaching faculty numbers 3,071.

Signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, the campus carry law will allow licensed firearms owners to bring concealed handguns into buildings and dormitories beginning in August 2016.

The law also allows campus officials to carve out certain areas as specially-designated gun-free zones. This has prompted some faculty, staff and students to urge the school's working group to designate large areas of campus - including all classrooms, offices and dormitories - as gun free.

At a public forum held Wednesday night, the vast majority of the more than 30 people who spoke railed against the new law and urged officials to restrict its implementation. The gun-free zones must be "reasonable," according to the law's language, and cannot have the effect of wholly or generally prohibiting concealed carry on campus.

"This is the one issue that's made me wonder whether I should stay here or not," said Steven Friesen, a religious studies professor who said he is concerned about teaching sensitive topics knowing his students are armed. "I teach volatile issues in the classroom, and it is not a place for guns."

UT-Austin's working group must submit its recommendations to campus President Greg Fenves by mid-November, who will then turn in his plan to the system by December 4. Unless amended by the UT system regents, the president's recommendation will become the campus' officially adopted plan next fall when the law goes into effect.

The new law does not apply to private universities or areas of public universities where guns are already banned, like certain health facilities, and community colleges won't have to comply until August 2017.